Upload
vuongdieu
View
236
Download
3
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
The Asian EFL Journal
Professional Teaching Articles
May 2010
Volume 44
Senior Editors:
Paul Robertson
Roger Nunn
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 2
Published by the Asian EFL Journal Press
Asian EFL Journal Press
A Division of Time Taylor International Ltd
http://www.asian-efl-journal.com
©Asian EFL Journal Press 2010
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of the Asian EFL Journal Press.
No unauthorized photocopying
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the Asian EFL Journal.
Publisher: Dr. Paul Robertson
Chief Editor: Dr. Roger Nunn
Production Editor: Roger Nunn
ISSN 1738-1460
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 3
Table of Contents:
1. Esmat Babaii and Zahra Yazdanpanah …………………………... 4-19 - Towards self-expression in L2 classrooms: The effect of
explicit teaching of story structures on EFL learners’ narrative ability
2. Caroline Brandt …………………………………….………............. 20-41
- Reading between the lines of enquiry: Introducing first-year
ESL university students to scholarship through literacy skills development
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 4
Towards Self-Expression in L2 Classrooms: The Effect of
Explicit Teaching of Story Structures on EFL learners’ Narrative Ability
Esmat Babaii
University for Teacher Education, Iran
Zahra Yazdanpanah
Islamic Azad University, Lar Branch, Iran
Biodata
Esmat Babaii received her PhD in Applied Linguistics from Shiraz University, Iran. She is
currently an assistant professor, teaching discourse analysis, language testing, research
methods and contrastive rhetoric. She is interested in discourse analysis, assessment,
functional linguistics, appraisal theory and narrative studies. She has published widely in
local and international journals.
Zahra Yazdanpanah received her MA in Applied Linguistics from Khatam Institute of
Higher Education, Iran. She is currently an EFL instructor at Islamic Azad University and
Payam-e-Noor University. Her areas of interest include learning strategies and narrative
structure with special focus on Bakhtin‘s voicing and Goffman‘s footing.
Abstract
Retelling stories, as an instance of guided speaking, can be an effective strategy to enhance
learners‘ communicative output and class participation. In many EFL (English as a Foreign
Language) classes, however, this effective strategy is rarely exploited to its full potential, and
the usual performance on the part of students is hardly anything better than a partially
memorized impersonal report. The current study set out to investigate whether this deficiency
is due to the learners‘ linguistic incompetence or their unfamiliarity with narrative
macrostructures. To this end, 60 intermediate-level EFL students were assigned to two
classes of experimental and control, where the experimental group received explicit
instruction on narrative story structures (Polanyi, 1979; Liskin-Gasparro, 1996). Results
indicated that learners in the experimental group outperformed those in the control group
regarding storytelling abilities. Although suffering from similar linguistic inadequacies as
their peers in the control group, they seemed to have developed skills to meet narrative
demands of story telling; specifically, they had learned how to inject their emotions, attitudes
and evaluative stance into their story, and make it worthy and different from merely reporting
a sequence of events occurring in the past. The sense of achievement through self-expression,
as attested by the participants, was another advantage of this experiment.
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 5
Keywords: narrative, story structures, narrative proficiency, retelling stories, evaluation
Introduction
The majority of information transferred among people is not in the form of clear and logical
arguments, but through narratives (Riessman, 1993). Narrative is popular in everyday life
since through narrative people construct social reality and make sense of their past
experiences (Bruner, 1986; Smith, 1990). From a socio-cultural perspective, stories can be
seen as tools to support and maintain culture and traditions. In fact, people use stories to
enhance and define cultural aspects for the benefit and enjoyment of their members (Martin,
2002). Besides, the use of narrative as a therapeutic device has been widely discussed in
psychotherapy (Halonen, 2002; Silverman, 2004). Following Bourdieu (1999, p. 615),
McKendy (2006) talks about ―a joy in expression‖ when marginalized and silenced
individuals are given an opportunity to make themselves heard.
The ability to tell a good story in a coherent manner—what Lalleman (1989, p.217) calls
―narrative proficiency‖—needs a high level of language and cognitive skills (Harste,
Woodward, and Burke, 1984). According to Bruner (1990), narrative production or
storytelling draws on different kinds of knowledge: (a) general knowledge about events; (b)
memory sequencing; (c) understanding of time and causality; (d) understanding of people
and typical social interaction; (e) understanding and insight into feelings; (f) verb tense and
linguistic connectives; and (g) cultural conventions of narratives.
Berman (1995) proposes three separate competencies and dimensions in a successful
narration: a linguistic dimension—the use of forms and structures; a conceptual dimension—
assigning due weight to the evaluative elements that lie outside of the narrative backbone;
and a communicative dimension—interpreting the narrative task so as to meet the pragmatic
conditions imposed by the listener‘s expectations, on the one hand, and the narrator‘s
responsibility for communicating clearly on the other (pp. 306-307). Accordingly, a
successful narrative activity requires efficient activation and utilization of linguistic,
conceptual and communicative resources available to the narrator. Failure or under-
development in any of these competencies is expected to result in undesirable outcomes.
Considering the contribution of narrative proficiency to the overall success of
communication in one‘s first as well as second language, seeking ways to improve the
aforementioned competencies seems warranted.
The affective, cognitive, socio-cultural, and linguistic dimensions of narration afford it a
unique status as a multipurpose and bankable task in EFL/ESL classes, an asset with an
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 6
empowering effect on the learners, when treated as ‗whole-persons‘ with their cognitive as
well as affective needs catered for (cf. Curran, 1972; Richards and Rodgers, 2001, pp.92-3).
Telling or retelling stories while inserting their emotional and attitudinal reactions, the
learners can have more ‗personal investment‘ (Curran, 1976, p.103) in the language learning
process. It is unfortunate that these potentials are underused and even sometimes wasted
through casual and mechanical treatment of narrative tasks in the pedagogical settings.
Narrative, at least in the EFL contexts we know about, is mostly treated as a purely linguistic
task with no attention paid to the role it can play in social interaction. To address this gap,
the present research attempts to highlight the significance of fostering EFL/ESL learners‘
narrative proficiency and investigate the impact of explicit teaching of story structure on the
quality of narrative production, from a linguistic as well as a socio-pragmatic perspective.
Background
Labov (Labov and Waletzky, 1967; Labov, 1972), no doubt, is to receive credit for
discovering the worth and importance of systematic study of narrative in sociolinguistic
research. Labov (1972) defined oral experience of personal narrative in terms of six discrete
structures: a) abstract: summarizes the story; b) orientation: setting or scene temporally or
spatially; c) complicating actions: narrative or event structure; d) result: outcome of the
events; e) evaluation: why the story is important or worth telling; and f) coda: relation
between the past experience or story and current situation. Outliving the criticisms
concerning its apparent inattention to context, Labov‘s model of narrative structure continues
to be the most influential analytical framework in narrative studies (see Georgakopoulou,
2007, for a thorough review). According to Bruner (1997, p.62), the structural components of
the model, evaluation in particular, have had an impressive staying power.
A Labovian approach to narrative analysis, in fact, belongs in the socio-pragmatic tradition
of narrative scholarship, along with other dominant models including the conversation
analytic model of storytelling pioneered by Sacks (1974), Goffman‘s (1979, 1986) footing,
and Bakhtin‘s (1981, 1986) voicing, with their common emphasis on the inadequacy of the
one-dimensional analysis of the denotational/referential content of narratives (cf. Koven,
2002). The significance of Labov‘s structural analysis within this tradition lies in its
simultaneous attention to both denotational and interactional aspects of narrative while the
others highlight the interactional feature of narrative, largely at the expense of denotational
feature. Through introducing the notion of evaluation, the Labovian model helps to
distinguish between denotational and interactional properties of narrative, and by doing so,
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 7
enables the analyst to differentiate varieties of narration, such as report and storytelling, in
terms of the load of social interaction. Such a differentiation (richly developed in Polanyi‘s
works discussed below) seems quite useful to language teachers in need of an analytical tool
to judge the quality of the learners‘ narrative tasks. As a ‗code-centered perspective‘ to
narrative analysis (to use Schiffrin‘s term, 2003), the Labovian approach views ―narrative
primarily as a mode of language-based action and means of social interaction […] this
perspective analytically privileges the language of stories, i.e. the code in which they are
conveyed‖ (Schiffrin, 2003, p. 538). Within this framework, it is possible to study formal
and functional boundaries among units of talk and hence, it seems to be a good model for
explaining, in tangible terms, how stories are told and organized.
Polanyi (1979, 1985) adopted Labov‘s model (1972) but integrated the six parts into three
structures (a) narrative structure: temporal contexts or events; (b) descriptive structure:
background information of characters or situations; and (c) evaluative structure: telling the
audience what the narrator feels is crucial information. Polanyi (1982) makes a distinction
between a ‗report‘ and ‗story‘: while both are telling ‗what‘ happened, a report does not
involve ―‗why‘ those events took place and ‗why‘ they are considered to be worth telling‖ (p.
515). On the other hand, as she aptly mentions, one tells a story to make a point and leave an
‗impact‘ on story recipients. She then explains how the ‗intended impact‘ is achieved:
… A teller is not satisfied merely to have been ‗allowed‘ to tell his story; he wants to
be appreciated for having had an IMPACT on the story recipients. Not any impact will
do, of course. He does not want the recipients to be amused by a story he is telling to
have them feel sad [...]. In order to forestall such differences in interpretation which
might result from IMPARTIAL REPORTING OF CIRCUMSTANCES, the speaker ‗evaluates‘
the various propositions asserted in his telling differentially. He includes META-
INFORMATION throughout his telling of the story which indicates DIFFERENTIAL WEIGHT
he assigns to the various states and events in the story.
(Polanyi, 1982, p. 517; emphasis through capitalization added)
It follows, then, that we cannot expect the same degree of interest, involvement and personal
investment with regards to the task of narration when the speaker is concerned with an
‗elicited report‘ as contrasted with the time he/she is asked to ‗tell his/her own story‘. The
point is that a narrative task in most EFL classes, as the authors have observed and have been
informed, is more akin to reporting than storytelling, and this, regretfully, makes classroom
narrative activities a dull, repetitive, and uninteresting experience for EFL learners. Many
professionals and educationalists (Hendrickson, 1992; Wasson-Ellam, 1992; Freire, 1996;
Bruner, 1996; McQuillan & Tse, 1998; to name but a few) are recommending the use of
storytelling for teaching and learning purposes, however, no hint is offered regarding the
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 8
‗how‘ of the task. The tacit assumption is that through mere exposure to the narrative mode
of presentation, the learners will be able to deduce the underlying structures and use them in
their own performance. Nevertheless, there is ample evidence indicating considerable
difference between native speakers‘ storytelling and that of non-native learners (Fakhri,
1984; Lalleman, 1989; Liskin-Gasparro, 1996; Kang, 1997; Parke, 2001, Tickoo, 2003), the
difference usually leading to the disadvantage of non-natives, especially minority children
(Perez & Tager-Flusberg, 1998). Therefore, in line with Montague, (1988) and Gordon,
(1989), it seems to us that explicit teaching of story structures is a viable strategy to help
EFL/ESL learners discover the world of storytelling and enjoy the advantage of this
discovery in their classroom as well as real-life communication.
Therefore, the express purpose of the study is to examine the usefulness of teaching story
structure, adopting the Labovian approach to narrative as an analytical and teaching tool. It
should be noted, however, that in spite of the theoretical vigor of Labov‘s model, its
application, especially operationalization of the notion of ‗evaluation‘, has proved to be
complicated. To the best of our knowledge, few if any other treatments of the model are as
systematic, elaborate, and yet non-technical enough for instructional purposes as the one
provided by Liskin-Gasparro (1996). In her analysis of narratives produced by non-native
learners of English, she illustrates the way certain linguistic/discursive devices can signal the
narrative, descriptive and evaluative structures in a storytelling task. Therefore, as a
workable tool for the study of narrative which does not presuppose a great deal of
background in discourse analysis, it seems to be readily accessible to EFL teachers who wish
to exploit the potentials of narrative activities in their classrooms.
Method
Participants
A total number of sixty female EFL learners at the intermediate level of language proficiency
were selected from an English language institute in Lar, a city in Fars province, Iran. The
participants were all Persian native speakers in their twenties. Therefore, it can be safely
assumed that they were homogeneous in terms of English language proficiency level, L1
background and age. Since random assignment of the students into control and experimental
groups was not feasible, intact-group design was employed in the study.
Instrumentation and Procedure
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 9
The current investigation was carried out over a span of ten weeks. In order to conduct this
study, the following steps were taken. First, a retired version of the Michigan test (version
2001) was used to ensure the participants‘ homogeneity in terms of their general language
proficiency. Table 1 presents the descriptive statistics for the proficiency test. In order to
check if there is any significant difference between the groups‘ proficiency level, an
independent t-test on the scores of the Michigan test was run. The t-observed value (tobs
=.447) did not exceed its critical value (tcrit = 2.0, df =58, α = .05) and it was concluded that
the two groups are balanced in this regard.
Table 1: Descriptive statistics for the proficiency test
Group N Mean SD
Control 30 44.73 9.33
Experimental 30 43.50 11.89
N= number of students in each group, SD=standard deviation
Furthermore, it was necessary to compare the groups‘ storytelling ability prior to explicit
teaching of story structures. What ensued was a pre-test in the form of oral elicited narration
in which the learners were required to retell a short story. The learners‘ storytelling
performances were tape-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed in terms of type and frequency
of story structures. Table 2 below presents the results of the analysis. The observed chi-
square value (χ2
obs = 1.33) does not exceed its critical value (χ2
crit = 5.99, df = 2, α = .05)
indicating no significant difference between the groups.
Table 2: The frequency of story structures in the groups’ pretests
Group Narrative Descriptive Evaluative
Control 249 298 77
Experimental 263 294 93
The next step was selecting some narrative tasks both for the teaching of story structures
and also to check the participants‘ narrative proficiency as the posttest. Among the types of
narrative tasks mentioned by Lalleman, (1989, p. 217), i.e., (1) an existing story (a fairy
tale), (2) an experience of or an invented story by the speaker or writer, and (3) the retelling
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 10
of an existing story or a story that is told with reference to a series of pictures, the third type
could ideally serve our purpose in the study. The reason to avoid free or invented storytelling
was the difficulty of comparison that could result from the inevitably uncontrollable
variation in the learners‘ narratives in terms of topic, length, diction, etc. Various sources
were browsed and, finally, six short stories from ―A 3rd
Serving of Chicken Soup for the
Soul” (Canfield & Hansen, 1994) were selected. The book is a collection of short,
inspirational stories based on real events and personal experiences of some individuals. In
addition to being entertaining, each story contained an implicit moral to trigger some
emotional and/or attitudinal reaction on the part of the learners. Another important
characteristic of these stories was that, although they were not simplified materials, they
enjoyed average difficulty level, i.e., 72.53, estimated through the Flesch readability formula
(Flesch, 1948); thus, serving as appropriate reading materials for intermediate students. The
titles of the selected stories were as follows: Almie Rose, Tommy‘s Essay, Compassion is in
the Eyes, Golden Crane, Make a Wish, and Two Families.
The learners were asked to read the stories at home and to retell the stories orally in the
class before other students. The retelling of each story took between 10 to 15 minutes. The
learners in the control group were exposed to the same material presented to the
experimental class, but they were not receiving any instruction in terms of the macrostructure
of the stories they were supposed to read and retell. The last performance of the learners
(Two Families story) was considered as their posttest, which was tape-recorded and
transcribed for further analysis.
Teaching and Assessing Narrative Proficiency
For a systematic teaching of story structures, Liskin-Gasparro (1996) makes some helpful
suggestions which were followed throughout the treatment. She recommends asking the
learners to build their stories from the bottom up: ―first plotting the narrative line, then
pinpointing where contextualizing details would be effective, and finally, inserting internal
and external evaluative devices at appropriate points‖ (p. 283). Accordingly, the learners in
the experimental class were asked to divide stories into episodes in terms of the
chronological order of the events. Then they were encouraged to explore the context of the
story, and describe the setting and the characters. Finally, they were instructed to use some
evaluative devices (Liskin-Gasparro, 1996, p. 278; reproduced in Table 3 below) to highlight
some parts of the story that they viewed as important.
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 11
Table 3: The list of proposed evaluative devices
1- Comments on action: brief comment: external
2- Comments on action: longer reflection: external
3- Reference to previous action: external
4- Ironic aside: external
5- Retarding narrative actions: gerund (progressive constructions): internal
6- Retarding narrative action: Juxtaposition of narrative and descriptive
clauses: internal
7- Repetition: lexical and/or syntactic: internal
8- Contrast: internal
9- Expressive phonology: internal
10- Lexical choice: internal
AAsssseessssmmeenntt ooff lleeaarrnneerrss‘‘ nnaarrrraattiivvee sskkiillll wwaass ddoonnee oonn tthhee bbaassiiss ooff LLaabboovviiaann aannaallyyssiiss ((ccff..
PPoollaannyyii,, 11997799;; LLiisskkiinn--GGaassppaarrrroo,, 11999966,, KKoovveenn,, 22000022)).. TThhee ffoolllloowwiinngg pprroocceedduurree wwaass aaddoopptteedd
wwhheenn aannaallyyzziinngg tthhee ttrraannssccrriippttiioonnss ooff tthhee lleeaarrnneerrss‘‘ oorraall pprreesseennttaattiioonn:: ffiirrsstt tthhee rreettoolldd ssttoorriieess
wweerree ddiivviiddeedd iinnttoo tthhrreeee kkiinnddss ooff ccllaauusseess:: iinnddeeppeennddeenntt,, ddeeppeennddeenntt,, aanndd eelllliippttiiccaall.. TThheessee
ccllaauusseess wweerree nnuummbbeerreedd.. SSeeccoonndd,, tthheessee ccllaauusseess wweerree ddiivviiddeedd iinnttoo ssttoorryy wwoorrlldd aanndd nnoonn--ssttoorryy
wwoorrlldd ccllaauusseess.. TThhiirrdd,, ssttoorryy wwoorrlldd ccllaauusseess wweerree ddiivviiddeedd iinnttoo tthhoossee tthhaatt aaddvvaannccee tthhee ssttoorryy lliinnee
tthhrroouugghh tthhee pprreesseennttaattiioonn ooff aa sseett ooff cchhrroonnoollooggiiccaallllyy--oorrddeerreedd eevveennttss ((nnaarrrraattiivvee ssttrruuccttuurree)),, aanndd
tthhoossee tthhaatt ddoo nnoott aaddvvaannccee tthhee ssttoorryy lliinnee,, bbuutt ddeessccrriibbee tthhee ccoonntteexxtt aanndd cchhaarraacctteerrss iinn tthhee ssttoorryy
((ddeessccrriippttiivvee ssttrruuccttuurree)).. NNoonn--ssttoorryy wwoorrlldd ccllaauusseess wweerree vviieewweedd aass eevvaalluuaattiivvee ssttrruuccttuurree aass tthheeyy
ddoo nnoott aaddvvaannccee tthhee ssttoorryy lliinnee aanndd eenntteerr iinnttoo ssttoorriieess ffrroomm oouuttssiiddee wwoorrlldd aanndd tthheeiirr rreelleevvaannccee iiss
ttoo bbee eessttaabblliisshheedd bbyy tthhee tteelllleerr aanndd iinnffeerrrreedd bbyy tthhee aauuddiieennccee.. IInn oorrddeerr ttoo mmaakkee ssuurree ooff tthhee
rreelliiaabbiilliittyy ooff aannaallyyssiiss,, tthhee ttrraannssccrriippttiioonnss wweerree aannaallyyzzeedd bbyy tthhee rreesseeaarrcchheerrss aanndd iinntteerr--ccooddeerr
aaggrreeeemmeenntt wwaass eessttiimmaatteedd tthhrroouugghh tthhee kkaappppaa ccooeeffffiicciieenntt ((HHaarrttmmaannnn,, 11997777)).. TThhee oobbttaaiinneedd
vvaalluuee ((κκ == ..992299)) ccaann bbee ccoonnssiiddeerreedd aass aa ssaattiissffaaccttoorryy iinnddeexx ooff aaggrreeeemmeenntt bbeettwweeeenn tthhee rraatteerrss;;
tthhuuss,, ssuuppppoorrttiinngg tthhee ccrreeddiibbiilliittyy ooff tthhee ffiinnddiinnggss..
Results and Discussion
The quantitative analysis of the transcribed retold stories revealed a considerable increase in
the experimental group‘s output regarding all three structures, especially ‗evaluation‘ (see
Table 4). The difference between the groups is not due to chance as the observed chi-square
value (χ2
obs = 24.33) exceeds its critical value (χ2
crit = 5.99, df = 2, α = .05). Therefore, it can
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 12
be concluded that explicit teaching of story structures had a significant effect on improving
the learners‘ narrative ability.
Table 4: The frequency of story structures in the groups’ posttests
Group Narrative Descriptive Evaluative
Control 318 265 98
Experimental 465 364 262
The difference between the groups, nevertheless, was not restricted to differential
performance merely in terms of the frequency of the story structures. Remarkable qualitative
differences were also pinpointed which will be detailed under separate headings.
Narrative structure
A quick look at Tables 2 and 4 demonstrates a high frequency of narrative structure in
pretests and posttests of both control and experimental groups. This is to be expected since
narrative structure is the backbone of story line (Liskin-Gasparro, 1996) and through this
structure the key events of the story can be reported. However, a closer scrutiny of the stories
reveals that the experimental groups‘ accounts were richer in terms of narrative details,
especially those concerning the emotional and mental states of the characters. Another
important difference was that the learners in the control group tended to transfer the narrative
clauses of the story, as intact as possible, to their retellings so far so that their performance
was akin to memorization, while the experimental group learners were more inclined to re-
organize the story line in their own words. The following excerpts, provided by ‗Leila‘ and
‗Negar‘ (pseudonyms) in control and experimental classes, respectively, can help clarify the
point. It should be noted that their grammatical mistakes have not been corrected. (Due to
copyright restrictions, reproduction of the whole stories was not possible.)
Excerpt (1)
1- when the war ended
2- Japanese family went home
3- They were surprised to see
4- which was healthy and intact without any change
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 13
5- and they put red rosebud on the dining room table
as a gift for the Japanese family
(Two Families story retold by ‗Leila‘)
Excerpt (2)
6- and war in Europe ended
7- then the Japanese family were going to their home with the train
8- They were in train depot
9- suddenly father noticed that
10- a man who is standing ahead of them
11- is family of Swiss
12- then thought more and
13- and suddenly he noticed
14- that he is their neighbor and their family
15- they said hello
16- and they were happy to see each other
17- then they went home
18- when they arrived
19- Japanese family surprised
20- because everything was good
21- and the Swiss father handed the passbook to the Japanese father
22- it was all money
23- that he worked during all these years
24- they went to living room
25- there was some rose buds on table
26- and also a beautiful gift for the Japanese neighbor
(Two Families story retold by ‗Negar‘)
Leila‘s account is quite typical of story retelling performance in EFL classes in our context.
In fact, it can be considered as a low-risk strategy since by sticking to the framework and
even wordings of the story, the learners can avoid making grammatical and lexical errors.
Negar‘s performance, on the other hand, is full of narrative details, leading to a lively and
natural story. Putting more flesh to the bone of her account, she becomes more vulnerable to
making linguistic errors but her story is more similar to real-life narratives.
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 14
Descriptive structure
While narrative structure is needed to show the progression of events along a given
chronological order, the descriptive structure is used to contextualize those events by
introducing details about the characters, time and place. The high frequency of this structure
in the performance of both groups can be explained by the fact that this type of information
may be automatically and readily imported from the main story to the learners‘ retelling. The
main question is whether the descriptive details mentioned can provide the necessary context
for narrative structure to facilitate understanding of the events. Throughout the
experimentation, the experimental group was instructed to pay attention to and exploit this
property of descriptive structure and make a distinction between important and not-so-
important contextual information. For example, as it can be seen in excerpt (1) produced by
‗Leila‘ in the control group, many interesting details describing the ‗how‘ of events have
been recognized as unimportant and been simply omitted: It is just mentioned that when the
war ended, the Japanese family went home. In excerpt (2), on the contrary, details of getting
back home are provided by ‗Negar‘ in the experimental class: The very point that their Swiss
neighbors were in the train depot to welcome the Japanese family is an indication of strong
friendship between the two families, a key element for appreciating the message of the story.
Evaluative structure
The most remarkable difference, both quantitatively and qualitatively, between the control
and experimental posttests was due to their use of evaluative structure. Incidentally, this
structure is what makes a ‗story‘ different from a ‗report‘ (cf. Polanyi, 1982). Because of the
instruction they received during the course of study, the experimental class members
developed the awareness that storytelling is a social activity between a teller and audience
rather than a unilateral task. Using evaluative devices, they were trying to whet their
audience‘s appetite and engage their attention. While retelling, they were visibly checking
the recipients‘ verbal and/or facial reactions and were seeking new strategies to keep them on
their seat, and to encourage them to keep on listening to the story. When interviewed, they
described this type of story telling as an emotionally rewarding experience since it provided
them with an opportunity for self-expression. They were using a host of evaluative strategies
to comment on the events, express their attitude towards the characters in the story, link the
story to their own personal experiences and cultural background, and formulate
generalizations about life and society.
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 15
The following excerpts (Excerpts 3 and 4) by Mina (pseudonym) in the experimental class
demonstrates the employment of clauses as the beginning and end of the story which do not
belong to story world as they do not advance the plotline. They are used, however, to reflect
the teller‘s point of view and judgment. In fact, as also discussed in the Bakhtinian tradition,
it is through ―investing the words with evaluations‖ that an author or narrator ―orients the
information in a novel way toward the world‖ (Vitanova, 2005, p. 158). The novel ways of
retelling the same story was the phenomenon frequently observed in the experimental group
but not in the control one.
Excerpt (3)
27- every year some people immigrate to another country
28- Some of them go to escape poverty or political problems
29- Some of them go for excitement or adventure
(Two Families story retold by ‗Mina‘)
Excerpt (4)
30- because they take care of our nursery our greenhouse
31- and this is worth more than all things for us
32- where you can find neighbors like this
33- they are so kind and friendly
(Two Families story retold by ‗Mina‘)
In sum, the ubiquitous use of evaluative comments and the learners‘ willingness to employ
them in their retellings created a dynamic and lively classroom atmosphere as each student
was trying to present a different and unique account of the story, one that would encourage
the audience‘s appreciation and praise.
Concluding Remarks
―Why harp so much on the value of narrative skills? Do we learn a second/foreign language
to tell stories?‖, one may ask. In response, it could be argued that we do not have to be
professional story tellers to use narratives. As Labov (1997, p. 395), candidly says:
―narratives are privileged forms of discourse which play a central role in almost every
conversation‖. In fact, succeeding in this mode of discourse is an important factor for the
efficiency of a speaker‘s communicative performance; it enables him/her to ―occupy more
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 16
social space‖ and ―hold the floor longer‖ Labov (1997, p. 402) because he/she knows how to
make his/her contribution interesting to the audience.
The other side of the coin is the failure in the accomplishment of the narrative task; when
the story ―falls flat‖ (Polanyi, 1982, p. 519), the speaker suffers a loss of face, not knowing
how to deal with the implicit or explicit ―so what‖ (Labov, 1972) response to his/her story.
The unpleasant feeling of embarrassment that follows usually needs to be ironed out by the
speaker or others present. Therefore, it seems to us that narrative proficiency is not a trivial
or luxurious skill in language learning. It is believed that EFL learners, receiving instruction
on narrative structures and devices, will be more successful in initiating and maintaining
communication, and this, needless to say, will result in further exposure to L2, and
consequently more proficiency in the use of language.
Acknowledgements
We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Judith Liskin-Gasparro, Associate Professor in
the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Iowa. She was kind and
generous enough with her time to do a sample analysis on the data we sent her. The analysis
was extremely helpful and inspiring in furthering our investigation.
References
Bakhtin, M. (1981). The dialogic imagination. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Bakhtin, M. (1986). Speech genres and other late essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas
Press.
Berman, R. (1995). Narrative competence and storytelling ability: How children tell stories
in different contexts. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 5, 4, 285-313.
Bourdieu, P. (1999). The weight of the world: Social suffering in contemporary society.
Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Bruner, J. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of Meaning. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J. (1996). The culture of education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J. (1997). Labov and Waletzky thirty years on. In M. Bamberg (Ed.), Oral versions
personal experience: three decades of narrative analysis. Special issue of Narrative
and Life History, 7, 61-68.
Canfield, J., & Hansen, M. (1994). A 3rd
serving of chicken soup for the soul. Deerfield,
Florida: Health Communication, Inc.
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 17
Curran, C. (1972). Counseling learning: A whole-person model for education. New York:
Grune and Stratton.
Curran, C. (1976). Counseling-learning in second languages. Apple River, Ill.: Apple River
Press.
Fahkri, A. (1984). The use of communication strategies in narrative discourse: A case study
of a learner of Moroccan Arabic as a second language. Language Learning, 34, 15-37.
Flesch, R. (1948). A new readability yardstick. Journal of Applied Psychology, 32, 321-33.
Freire, P. (1970/1996). Pedagogy of the oppressed. NY: Continuum Publication.
Georgakopoulou, A. (2007). Small stories, interaction and identities. Amsterdam
/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Goffman, E. (1979). Footing. Forms of talk (pp. 124-159). Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press.
Goffman, E. (1986). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. Boston,
MA: Northeastern University Press.
Gordon, C. J. (1989). Teaching narrative text structure: A process approach to reading and
writing. In K.D. Muth (Ed.), Children’s comprehension of text: Research into practice
(pp.79-102). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Halonen, M. (2002). Kertominen terapian välineenä. Tutkimus vuorovaikutuksesta
myllyhoidon ryhmäterapiassa. [Telling as a therapeutic device: A study of interaction
in Minnesota model group therapy] Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.
Harste, J., Woodward, D., & Burke, C. (1984). Language stories and literary lessons. Exeter,
NH: Heineman Educatioal Books.
Hartmann, D. (1977). Considerations in the choice of inter-observer reliability estimates.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 10 (1), 103-106.
Hendrickson, J. (1992). Storytelling for foreign language and linguistics. Washington, D. C.:
ERIC Clearing House on Language and Linguistics. (Eric Document Reproduction No.
ED 355-824).
Kang, D. H. (1997). Narrative of Korean children: A case study of structural and cultural
components in second language development by learners of English. Washington, D.
C.: ERIC Clearing House on Language and Linguistics. (Eric Document Reproduction
No-ED 413-779).
Koven, M. (2002). An analysis of speaker role inhabitance in narratives of personal
experience. Journal of Pragmatics, 34, 167-217.
Koven, M. (2002). An analysis of speaker role inhabitance in narratives of personal
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 18
experience. Journal of Pragmatics, 34, 167-217.
Labov, W. (1972). Language in the inner city: Studies in the Black English vernacular.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Labov, W. (1997). Some further steps in narrative analysis. In M. Bamberg (Ed.), Oral
versions personal experience: three decades of narrative analysis. Special issue of
Narrative and Life History, 7, 395-415.
Labov, W., & Waletzky, J. (1967). Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience.
In J. Helm (Ed.), Essays on the verbal visual arts, (pp. 12-44). Seattle: University of
Washington Press.
Lalleman, J.A. (1989). The development of L1 and L2 proficiency in Dutch: A narrative
analysis of a picture-based story, told by Turkish and native Dutch children at the ages
of six and eight. Language Learning, 37, 2, 217-246.
Liskin-Gasparro, J. (1996). Narrative strategies: A case study of developing storytelling
skills by a learner of Spanish. Modern Language Journal, 80, 271-286.
Martin, K. J. (2002). Ehanni Wicowayanke: Illuminating language and culture in a Lakota
narrative. Paper presented in the UC Consortium for Language Learning and teaching.
University of California, Davis. Available at: http:// uccllt.ucdavis.edu/ Events /papers
/KJMartin.Ehanni.html.
McKendy, J. (2006). ‗I am very careful about that: Narrative and agency of men in prison.
Discourse and Society, 17, 473-502.
McQuillan, J., & Tse, L. (1998). What‘s the story? Using the narrative approach in the
beginning language classroom. TESOL Journal, 7, 4, 18-23.
Montague, M. (1988). Story grammar and learning disabled students‘ comprehension and
reproduction of narrative prose. Washington, D. C.:ERIC Clearing House on Language
and Linguistics. (Eric document Reproduction Service No. ED 502-819).
Parke, T. (2001). Words and turns: Bilingual and monolingual children construct a story.
Linguistics and Education, 12, 4, 409-430.
Perez, C., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (1998). Clinicians‘ perception of children‘s oral personal
narrative. Narrative Inquiry, 8, 181-201.
Polanyi, L. (1976). Why the whats are when: Mutually contextualizing realms of narratives.
Proceedings of the Second Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society.
Berkeley, CA, 59-77.
Polanyi, L. (1979). So what‘s the point? Semiotica, 25, 207-241.
Polanyi, L. (1982). Linguistics and social constraints on storytelling. Journal of Pragmatics,
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 19
6, 509-524.
Polanyi, L. (1985). Telling the American story: A structural and cultural analysis of
conversational storytelling. Norwood, NJ: Albex.
Richards, J. & Rodgers, T. (2001). Approaches and methods in language teaching.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Riessman, C. K. ( 1993). Narrative Analysis. London: Sage.
Sacks, H. (1974). An analysis of the course of a joke‘s telling in conversation. In Bauman,
R., and Sherzer, J. (eds.), Explorations in the ethnography of speaking (pp. 337-353).
New York: Cambridge University Press.
Schiffrin, D. (2003). We knew that‘s it: Retelling the turning point of a narrative. Discourse
Studies, 5, 535-561.
Silverman, Y. (2004). The Story within—myth and fairy tale in therapy. The Arts in
Psychotherapy, 31, 127–135
Smith, F. (1990). To think. New York: Teachers College Press.
Tickoo, A. (2003). On variable temporal passage in storytelling: Identifying. constraints and
evidencing constraint violation in the narratives of second language writers. Text, 23, 1,
129-163.
Vitanova, G. (2005). Authoring the self in a non-native language: A dialogic approach to agency
and subjectivity. In Hall, J. , Vitanova, G., and Marchenkova, L., (eds.) Dialogue with
Bakhtin on second and foreign language learning (pp. 149-169). New Jersey:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Wasson-Ellam, L. (1992). Inviting children‘s life stories into the elementary classrooms: The
storied life of a second language learner. Washington, D. C.: ERIC Clearing House on
Language and Linguistics. (Eric Document Reproduction No. ED 357-342).
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 20
Reading Between the Lines of Enquiry:
Introducing First-Year ESL University Students to Scholarship through
Literacy Skills Development
Caroline Brandt
Petroleum Institute
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Biodata:
Caroline Brandt is an Assistant Professor at the Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, United Arab
Emirates, where she teaches academic communication and research skills to female
engineering students taking B.Sc. degrees. She has 28 years of experience in the field of
adult second language teaching and has held a number of senior positions in higher education
institutions in 6 countries, including Hong Kong, the Sultanate of Brunei, the United Arab
Emirates and New Zealand. She specializes in professional development and academic
communication. Her publications include two books that reflect these areas of interest: Read,
research and write: Academic skills for ESL students in higher education, UK: SAGE
Publications Ltd, 2009; and Success on your certificate course in English Language
Teaching: A guide to becoming a teacher in ELT/TESOL, UK: SAGE Publications Ltd,
2006.
Abstract
Scholarship may usefully be defined as referring to the professional standards that academics
apply in their work, such as rigorous attention to detail, critical thinking, ensuring that all
assertions may be substantiated and documenting sources. All students entering university
are expected to learn to apply such standards, and to this end may be required to take
preparation courses. However, a significant proportion of those entering English-medium
universities come from non-English language backgrounds and for these students, who
usually have on entry a minimum proficiency level of IELTS 5, the need for familiarization
with academic culture and standards is compounded by the need for ongoing development of
linguistic proficiency, particularly in relation to the skills required to read and write for
academic purposes. Focusing on these skills, lecturers teaching on preparation courses seek
texts as the basis for development. However, research (e.g. Hirvela, 2001) has indicated that
the selection of appropriate reading material is problematic. This paper draws on the
outcomes of a study concerned with the induction into the academic community of
undergraduates for whom English is a Second Language (ESL). Following Biggs‘ (1999)
concept of the ―constructively aligned‖ curriculum, in which all components are integrated,
serve the same goals and support each other, it is shown that first-year ESL students can
benefit from reading various types of unabridged academic reporting. Such material has the
significant advantage of supporting the dual goals of academic socialization and the
development of academic reading skills. It is suggested that students are best supported by a
phased approach in which they progress from reading articles on topics closely related to
their preparation, to those concerned with scholarship in teaching and learning in their
disciplines, and, finally, to articles from within their disciplines.
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 21
Introduction: English-medium higher education
Recent estimates suggest that worldwide over 2.7 million students pursue higher education
outside of their country of citizenship, with 67% of these students being hosted by six
countries; these are, in descending order according to overseas student enrollment, the US
and the UK (together accounting for more than a third of all international students (Graddol,
2007, p.76)), Germany, France, Australia and Japan (UK Higher Education International
Unit, 2009). The impact of these internationally-mobile students on individual countries can
be significant; for example, in 2006 they accounted for 25.5% of all students enrolled in
higher education institutions in Australia (Baik & Greig, 2009, p. 401) and 13% in the UK
(UK Higher Education International Unit, 2009). While such figures fluctuate from year to
year as a result of various factors that affect student mobility, including changes to foreign
and economic policy and the availability and quality of the provision of higher education in
the home market, their impact on the host economies and societies remains substantial.
Concurrently, many countries have recently witnessed rapid expansion and improvement to
domestic higher education opportunities. In India, for example, the number of post-
secondary institutions tripled from 6,000 in 1990 to 18,000 in 2006, while in the Asia Pacific
region, domestic training has grown from 9% to 19% over the same period (Roslyn Kunin &
Associates, 2009, p.8). Both regions also expect significant growth in student populations;
India, for example, anticipates that its college age population will grow from 125 to 139
million between 2005 and 2015. While such growth will be absorbed in part by the
expansion of domestic higher education institutes, it is also expected to contribute to the
numbers of students opting to study overseas (Roslyn Kunin & Associates, 2009, p.8; British
Council, 2004), although the overall trend appears to be towards a decline in the numbers of
students travelling overseas for higher education study (Graddol, 2007, p.77). To some
extent traditional international student destinations such as the US and the UK are being
replaced by:
.… a bewildering assortment of joint ventures and overseas branch campuses
[….] as American, Australian and British universities now compete for
international students in their home countries. The UK‘s University of
Nottingham, for example, opened two Asian campuses in September 2005:
Nottingham Malaysia and Nottingham Ningbo in China (a joint venture with
Zhejiang Wanli University). By such ventures, numbers of transnational
students studying for UK degrees are expected to overtake international
students coming to Britain for study. The new overseas campuses are likely to
attract students from elsewhere in the region, thus helping to provide an
international intellectual environment.
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 22
Graddol, 2007, p.79
While such joint ventures and university branches offer English-medium instruction,
domestic higher education institutes located in countries for which English is a second
language are increasingly opting to provide instruction in English. A number of factors
influence this decision, including the desire to retain students who might otherwise be
attracted by the competitive advantage provided by an overseas English-medium education,
with its associated potential to improve employment mobility and opportunity. League tables
indicate that approximately 66% of the top 100 universities worldwide are in English-
speaking countries (Graddol, 2007, p.74). Graddol adds that this is:
…. one reason why English is used increasingly as the medium of education
in universities across the world. If an institution wishes to become a centre of
international excellence, it needs both to attract teachers and researchers from
around the world, and to encourage international students to enroll on its
courses, enriching the university‘s prestige, revenue, and intellectual climate.
A recent commentary in The Economist observed: The top universities are
citizens of an international academic marketplace with one global academic
currency, one global labour force and, increasingly, one global language,
English.
Graddol, 2007, p.74
Graddol (2007, p.96) notes that while such universities began to expect graduates to have
attained English language proficiency of around IELTS 6, in practice, as a result of low
proficiency levels on entry, students rarely exceed IELTS 5, and he notes that the idea of exit
proficiency level is gradually being replaced by entry proficiency levels of IELTS 5.5 and
that students will ideally, through study in English, have reached IELTS 6.5 by age 20.
Worldwide, therefore, proficiency levels among undergraduates vary from IELTS 5 to those
who have bilingual or first language competence.
It may be seen therefore that a very significant proportion of undergraduate education
worldwide is provided in English to students for whom English is a Second Language. These
students are expected to have attained a level of English proficiency sufficient for study in
English, and the trend is for language support for these students to move from the general (as
in a classroom-based, timetabled approach in school) to the more specific, that is, to
academic and discipline-related language developed primarily through immersion (Graddol,
2007, p.97). This trend has been accompanied by a shift in emphasis in target level of
English language proficiency, from the often unrealistic and misguided goal of attaining first
language or near-first language proficiency to a far more pragmatic emphasis on successful
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 23
intercultural communication in a variety of local and international contexts, in which ―the
competence needs of students can be related to the different communities with and within
which they will need to communicate‖ (Nunn, 2007, p.37). This:
… implies an ability (not just a readiness) to interact in unpredictable
multicultural contexts and the ability to adapt to a variety of communities and
types of community. Some of these will be temporary multicultural
communities, other will be monolingual and mono-cultural speech
communities. Standards of competence are related to the composition of the
membership of the community and are not definable in terms of ‗native‘, or
educated ‗native‘ as members may not be native.
Nunn, 2007, p.39
The transition that these students must make when they progress from secondary to tertiary
education is marked, therefore, by the shift from learning English at school to learning in
English at university, a context that includes various communities and types of community.
This shift has various implications.
Learning in English at university
Students who once learned English at school, as second language learners, at university find
themselves required both to learn in English and to familiarize themselves with the culture
and processes of scholarship, a culture that differs from secondary school in several ways.
For example, university students are expected to be self-motivated and independent learners
who are able to cope with course content that is presented in a variety of ways, from lectures
to seminars and tutorials. They are also expected to be able to engage with the assessment
process, requiring them to read, research and write to academic standards.
The transition therefore from learning English to learning in English, superficially subtle,
has radical implications for university administrations, faculty and students, as decisions
must be made regarding the allocation of resources enabling ESL students to reach the
standards identified by Graddol above. ESL students‘ work is compounded: not only do they
need to acquire the discipline-related knowledge that all students need while concurrently
familiarizing themselves with university culture and behavior norms and expectations, but
they must also continue to develop their English language proficiency. The challenge is
clearly the most demanding for those at the lower end of the proficiency range. To support
ESL students, universities frequently require them to undertake preparation courses to
develop academic communication skills either prior to admission or as co-requisites to
discipline-related courses. These courses are often labeled ‗English for Specific Purposes‘
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 24
(ESP) or ‗English for Academic Purposes‘ (EAP). However, some institutions, in accord
with the trend identified by Graddol and discussed above, are increasingly moving towards
preparation courses in which ESL students are not differentiated from others. In this
approach all students, regardless of differing language proficiencies, are considered in
relation to the skills and language they need to develop to enable them to perform well at
university, and preparation courses may have titles such as ‗Academic Research and
Communication Skills‘ or ‗Academic Communication‘. ESL students in particular benefit
from this approach as they must work alongside others for whom English is a first language.
Together, indeed often in teams, students develop a range of skills such as intercultural and
interpersonal communication and writing, study and research skills, as well as begin to come
to terms with the culture of a university and what is expected of them. The assumption is that
all students have an adequate foundation of linguistic skills; all, therefore, develop linguistic
skills incidentally, through immersion and application; linguistic issues are addressed, but
only as they arise and as they are needed and rarely if ever form the main focus of a class.
Both types of courses – that is, those aimed at ESL students and those aimed at a broader
target group – were considered in research carried out from 2003 and 2007 (see Brandt,
2009a, pp.1 - 18 and Brandt 2009b, pp.145 - 156), though the majority fell into the ESP/EAP
category. The study had set out to investigate the induction of undergraduates into the
academic community in several universities, and its findings are related here to current
practice at one institution.
Research base: investigating preparation courses
The research set out to address the question: ‗How does EAP tutors‘ practice compare with
discipline lecturers‘ expectations of their ESL students?‘ Participants represented tertiary
institutions in nine countries including Indonesia, Australia, Bahrain, the UAE and the UK.
Other studies have investigated the practice of EAP tutors, and compared it with subject-
lecturers‘ expectations: Kehe and Kehe (1996), for example, conducted research into the
preparation of ESL students in Japan for study in the U.S., while Ferris and Tagg (1996),
examined subject lecturers‘ expectations of ESL students‘ oral and aural skills. In both cases,
however, the focus was on ESL students intending to study in the U.S. The research referred
to here on the other hand was concerned with the preparation of ESL students planning to
continue their studies at the same institution, in various international locations.
All data were gathered according to an ethical framework of 7 criteria (Patton, 1990),
including informed participant consent, guaranteed anonymity, and confidentiality. A two-
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 25
phase qualitative approach to data gathering was designed. Phase one involved a
questionnaire of open-ended questions completed and returned electronically by 36
participants (16 subject and 20 EAP lecturers). In the second phase, two subject and two
EAP lecturers who had not been involved in phase one were invited to discuss the
preliminary outcomes, the purpose being to allow for triangulation and the substantiation,
rejection, modification or supplementation of the issues that had been identified during the
first phase of the research.
The very large quantity of data generated by phase one was analyzed and synthesized
manually in order to provide maximum opportunity for familiarization, understanding and
comparison (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). As the data were gathered, they were read and re-read,
enabling the identification of emerging themes via a process of inductive reasoning (Goetz &
LeCompte, 1984). The process adopted involved collating all responses to the same question;
annotating the collated data according to the research question; word processing all data to
facilitate use of the ―find‖ function to assist in the identification of themes and issues;
identifying relative significance and relationships between themes and issues and identifying
themes and issues for discussion in phase two (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000; Miles & Huberman,
1994; Strauss & Corbin, 1990). A similar analytical process was applied to phase two data,
leading to the identification of 9 categories and 31 issues considered critical to the
preparation of ESL students for English-medium university study.
One category related to reading and writing skills development, and two issues are of
relevance to this discussion. First was the belief widely held among lecturers that the
development of reading and writing skills should be integrated, although the outcomes
indicated that this was not always applied. The second issue of relevance here relates to the
selection of reading material, which was found to be problematic from a number of
perspectives. Issues identified included a particular dilemma for teachers aiming to develop
first-year students‘ academic reading skills. These teachers must find appropriate reading
materials for classes of students of different disciplines or of the same (or closely related)
discipline; in all cases however first-year students by definition have little discipline
knowledge. Common solutions identified in the research included the use of texts drawn
from the media, which offer advantages in terms of currency but do not exemplify academic
writing, and the use of ‗general-interest‘ semi-academic texts (e.g. taken from The
Economist), which can lack discipline relevance and therefore credibility from students‘
perspectives. Other options indentified include EAP and ESP textbooks, discipline-specific
textbooks, literature, and parts of academic journal articles, such as abstracts (see Morton,
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 26
1999). This dilemma is not new; Hirvela (2001, p.331), for example, citing research
published between 1987 and 1997, notes that ―a major point of contention in EAP is what
kind of texts should be used in EAP instruction.‖
While the research helped to identify some current solutions to the problem of sources of
reading materials, it also indicated that students are rarely asked to read full-length journal
articles, generally because it is assumed that they are not written for an audience of students
and that consequently they are likely to be linguistically and conceptually too complex,
particularly for first-year undergraduates. However, at one institute in the Arabian Gulf, ESL
students, with support, are routinely asked to read complete conference proceedings papers
and journal articles. These form the basis of a literature review as part of research projects,
and so help to develop students‘ reading and writing skills; however, faculty also recognize
that requiring first year ESL students to read such articles goes beyond narrower definitions
of academic literacy to include facilitating induction into the scholarly community.
Academic reading
The expectation that reading is the basis for writing is one of the key features that distinguish
academic reading from reading for other purposes and from learning to read at school. It is
no accident that this expectation reflects a fundamental scholarly process: the move from
known to unknown, from reading what has been published to researching and writing about
something new. Hirvela (2001, p.330) notes that while reading and writing in a second
language are challenging enough, in academic contexts, the challenge is compounded as
writing from sources goes beyond discrete reading and writing skills to their integration and
inter-dependency. Consequently he observes that:
… students having writing problems may actually be experiencing reading
problems. The act of composing from sources starts with the reading of those
texts. Difficulties in reading them impact significantly on writing about them,
since students are writing in response to what they have read and how they
have read it. Finding ways to incorporate reading effectively into EAP writing
courses is essential, then, if we are to establish a meaningful link between
reading and writing in EAP instruction.
Hirvela, 2001, p.330
Complex tasks that require the synthesis of a number of skills are a hallmark of study at
university level. Further examples include listening to a lecture and taking notes, giving
presentations, doing team-based project work and annotating an article. Such tasks require
students to move fluently and flexibly from one (often complementary) role to another: from
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 27
reader to note taker, from summarizer and synthesizer to original text writer, from speaker to
listener, from working in a team to working independently. This integration of roles and
skills appears likely to lead to more effective learning; for example, studies have indicated
that integrating reading and writing leads to better learning than when they are addressed
separately (Mateos & Solé, 2009, p.435). This benefit may be explained as the result of
reinforcement: clearly, reading and writing in combination reinforce each other, and the
intrapersonal communication that is required to move from one role to another is also likely
to reinforce learning: students‘ ―‗internal collaboration‘ or ‗dialectic‘ with themselves [….]
explains these tasks‘ potential for promoting learning‖ (Mateos & Solé, 2009, p.436). Such
integration and interrelatedness in skills and tasks means that students should be equally – or
nearly equally – proficient in each skill area, as the quality of notes taken, for example,
reflects the degree of understanding of the text or lecture. Many preparation courses address
the development of such higher order skills, and, the research found, generally use reading
material as their starting point, in the belief that texts provide the most useful springboard for
academic communication skills development, doubtlessly reflecting the status of written
material in academic contexts.
Academic success, therefore, is closely related to effective reading skills (Shih, 1992).
Current theory describes reading as an interactive process that relies primarily on ‗bottom-
up‘ processes which ‗top-down‘ processes draw upon (Alderson, 2000; Grabe, 2009; Koda,
2005). ‗Bottom-up‘ processes, also known as micro-level processes, include decoding words
and structures which are the basis for the ‗top-down‘ or macro-level processes that involve
understanding and relating this understanding to what the reader already knows about the
language and content of the text. It is at the ‗top-down‘ level that interaction between reader
and text occurs as the reader makes connections between what he or she already knows about
the context of the text, using the new information to expand or modify existing knowledge.
This is a ‗deep‘ level of processing that requires students to access the meanings expressed in
the message (such as the ideas and evidence presented, for example); it is in contrast to a
more ‗surface‘ level, in which the focus is on the features of the message itself, such as the
vocabulary and grammar.
While there is no doubt that bottom-up processes are critical for fluent reading (a large
extensive vocabulary is particularly essential (Alderson, 2000, p.35; Laufer, 1998, p.1, Liu &
Nation, 1995), being one of the best predictors of text comprehension), the ability ―to
integrate text and background information appropriately and efficiently‖ (Grabe & Stoller,
2002, p.28), in order to construct and negotiate new meanings, is a key skill at this level.
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 28
This requires several higher-order cognitive skills, such as the ability to link new information
to known concepts, to theorize, analyse and synthesize, solve problems and select and apply
a range of appropriate metacognitive skills and strategies effectively, including preparing and
planning, monitoring and evaluating strategy use and ensuing learning, and orchestrating
different strategies (Anderson, 2002).
Given that it is the task of preparation courses to develop such higher order skills in
students, and that reading materials form an ideal springboard for this development, the
question arises: what reading materials enable us to provide the best springboard to
―incorporate reading effectively into EAP writing courses [in order to] to establish a
meaningful link between reading and writing‖, as Hirvela (2001, p.330) suggests is
necessary, thereby establishing learning as integrated and cumulative?
What should first-year ESL university students read?
To foster the development of higher order skills, John Biggs (1999, p.64) discusses the
importance of establishing an ―aligned system of instruction‖ which is a ―fully criterion-
referenced system, where the objectives define what we should be teaching; how we should
be teaching it; and how we could know how well students have learned it.‖ This is a
description of an outcomes-based approach which will be familiar to many; however of
particular interest here is Biggs‘ emphasis on how:
… all components in the system address the same agenda and support each
other. The students are ―entrapped‖ in this web of consistency, optimizing the
likelihood that they will engage the appropriate learning activities. I call this
network constructive alignment.
Biggs, 1999, p.64.
How can we ―entrap‖ first year university students in a ―web of consistency‖ in relation to
what they should be asked to read? The concept of a ―system [addressing] the same agenda‖
justifies the exclusion of reading material drawn from the media or from other non-academic
sources, and leads us to look inwards to the functions and products of a university. As a
starting point, therefore, an obvious focus is on scholarship, because ―scholarship is bound
up with the nature and functions of the university. It is highly valued in higher education.
The ideal of the scholar is frequently intimately associated with ideas about the essence of
what universities are for‖ (Brew, 1999, p.1). What, however, is meant by ‗scholarship‘? The
concept is multi-faceted, making a precise definition difficult to achieve, but most efforts to
define the concept draw attention to inquiry (e.g. Boyer, 1990; Healy, 2000), communication
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 29
and community (e.g. Healy, 2000; Shulman, 1993; Trigwell, Martin, Benjamin, & Prosser,
2000), reflection (e.g. Robson, 2006), professionalism and standards (Brew, 1999) and
teaching and pedagogy (e.g. Trigwell, Martin, Benjamin & Prosser, 2000). One study
investigated senior academic administrators‘ perceptions of ‗research‘ and ‗scholarship‘. The
author found that:
‗Scholarship‘ was perceived to be part of the research process, providing the
context for good research by adding the element of breadth to the depth of
‗research‘. In addition, ‗scholarship‘ describes the manner of pursuing a
serious, sustained line of enquiry as well as the dissemination process.
Neumann, 1993, p.97.
Brew (1999) carried out a phenomenographic study that identified five distinct conceptions
of scholarship. In her findings, she too emphasized the quality dimension, which she argues
provides the most useful definition of scholarship. Referring to her data, she provides the
following definition:
… scholarship describes the professional way in which academics work. It
refers to the qualities of meticulousness and rigour associated with academic
reporting: e.g. making sure footnotes are accurate and that all statements can
be substantiated. A number of specific aspects were mentioned: ―techniques
of critical thought‖; ―reflective, scholarly process.‖ This conception is aligned
with Neumann‘s suggestion noted earlier; that scholarship includes the idea of
a quality describing the way research should be done. [….] The idea of
professionalism is central to the quality conception.
Brew, 1999, p.6
Regardless of the difficulties in arriving at consensus on the precise definition of scholarship,
its cultural capital will always be academic reporting in the form of presentation and
publication. The latter takes a number of forms: conference proceedings, journal articles,
monographs, books, reports. While students arriving at university expect to read books, most
have little understanding of the functions of journals and even less of the functions of
proceedings. However, such publications encapsulate scholarship, as defined above; their
inclusion in the curriculum would therefore represent a move towards Biggs‘ constructive
alignment, where the cultural capital of scholarship provides a source of teaching materials.
The reading materials selected will in this way by definition address the same agenda and
support other components of the curriculum, facilitating students‘ socialization into
university culture via a:
… learning process through which the individual acquires the knowledge and
skills, the values and attitudes, and the habits and modes of thought of the
society to which he [or she] belongs.
Bragg, 1976, p.3.
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 30
How this learning process is managed at one institution is considered next.
Reading between the lines of enquiry
The Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, offers five degree programs in
engineering subjects related to the petrochemical industry: Mechanical, Chemical, Electrical,
Petroleum and Petroleum Geosciences. Instruction is in English and students are required to
have achieved a minimum TOEFL score of 500 before entry, equivalent to IELTS Band 5; in
practice classes are a mixture of students of proficiency levels that vary from TOEFL 500 to
those who have bilingual mastery of English and, usually, Arabic.
To prepare for study of their major, two first-year communication courses are
prerequisites. The design of these courses reflects the belief that ESL students most
effectively develop academic communication skills through acquiring and articulating
knowledge. A student-initiated enquiry-based approach is employed which requires teams of
students to complete three research projects, having identified with guidance suitable
research questions that can be answered by gathering data from within their immediate
contexts. The three projects utilize quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods. Students are
encouraged to investigate genuine matters of concern identified by instructors and academic
management.
Students are guided to engage in all stages of the research cycle including locating and
reviewing relevant literature, writing surveys, interviewing participants and analyzing and
presenting data. These stages form the primary content input of the course; for example,
students are given presentations and workshops on the purpose of literature reviews; how to
document sources; quantitative and qualitative methods; writing research proposals;
gathering and analyzing data, and writing a discussion and recommendations. Students are
expected to apply what they learn to their own research, and thus have a clearly defined
purpose for completing the various stages, as they are interdependent. This process
emphasizes academic processes of enquiry (a ‗top-down‘ approach) and deemphasizes
discrete language and skills (a ‗bottom-up‘ approach).
In the course of an academic year, students will read approximately 12 journal articles or
conference proceedings. All but two of these are sourced through the institute‘s online
academic database by the students themselves (who receive training in its use in the first
weeks of the first semester). The two articles that students do not find themselves are
provided for them at the beginning of the first course. These articles are selected to
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 31
exemplify academic reporting, but they are also chosen for their content, which is closely
related to the communication needs of first-year ESL students, and for their ability to suggest
to students potential areas for research.
While articles on communication-related topics are particularly useful in the early stages of
students‘ academic socialization and skills development, students should later be encouraged
to read examples of academic reporting in their disciplines, because:
…… the academic language needs of our students are closely related to the
purposes of the disciplines they are being inducted into. That is, different
disciplines foreground different types of language – in terms of genre,
grammar and lexis.
Cullip & Carol, 2002.
An effective way to bridge between communication-related articles and discipline-related
articles at this stage is to focus on examples of academic writing that reports on scholarship
in teaching and learning (SoTL) in the discipline. SoTL involves:
… systematic study of teaching and/or learning and the public sharing and
review of such work through presentations or publications. ―Study‖ is broadly
defined given disciplinary differences in epistemology and the need for
interdisciplinary SoTL. Presentations and publications may be local, regional,
national or international. SoTL, then, shares established criteria of scholarship
in general, such as that it is made public, can be reviewed critically by
members of the appropriate community, and can be built upon by others to
advance the field (Shulman, 2001). SoTL focuses on teaching and learning at
the college level, and is primarily classroom and disciplinary based. Ideally,
SoTL also involves application and use.
McKinney, K. (no date)
Appropriately selected conference proceedings and journal articles as reading materials in
the preparation of university students offer a number of specific benefits, which are
considered below under the six areas of length, currency and continuity of available supply,
content, quality, difficulty and uses.
1. Length
Conference proceedings and journal articles offer particular benefits in terms of length and
structure. They are (or should be) concise and self-contained. While a new student may
anticipate the reading of a journal article as an intimidating task, a good teacher will help his
or her students to break it down into ‗manageable chunks‘, and will teach a range of
strategies to facilitate reading, such as skimming and scanning; using headings as a guide,
etc.
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 32
2. Currency and continuity of available supply
Academic reporting also offers advantages in terms of currency and the availability of a
continuous supply of new articles. Articles are often freely available via the internet or
through university databases, and up-to-date (though this is not by any means always an
essential criterion: the need for current articles is related to the topics chosen for
investigation). For lecturers, the fact that journal articles are being continuously produced is
particularly useful, as it can help to ensure the injection into the curriculum of fresh materials
and topics, leading to original student research projects.
3. Content
Students should be encouraged to select articles that they have skimmed and consider likely
to be of interest or use in their research. In terms of topic, a phased approach is
recommended, with articles closely related, in this order, to:
1. The preparation of students for university study.
2. SoTL in the student‘s discipline.
3. The student‘s discipline.
In selecting articles, students should be encouraged to identify and share what prior
knowledge they have of the topic. Research has shown that this not only influences what a
reader remembers from a text, but also his or her understanding of the content (Alderson,
2000).
4. Quality
Students need to be guided to consider the quality of the publication they have identified, and
to be prepared to reject poor-quality articles. They need to understand that indicators of
quality are present in the authorship (what are his or her credentials?) and in the journal in
which the article was published. To assist students with the latter, the practice of peer-review
needs to be explained and, ideally, demonstrated, which can be done most effectively
through the lecturer‘s personal examples. Students may also be guided to provide
constructive peer-reviews of each other‘s writing, which serves to improve understandings of
the process and its purposes. It is also useful to draw students‘ attention to journal ranking
and the criteria used. They can be asked to identify the top journals in their fields. Students
can also be encouraged to seek articles recommended by their lecturers or librarians.
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 33
5. Difficulty
Research has shown that for adequate reading comprehension, students need to know at least
90 to 95% of the words in a text in order to be able to understand the main ideas and
therefore be able to guess the meaning of unknown words (Laufer, 1998; Nagy & Scott,
2000). Students should therefore be encouraged to select only those articles that meet this
criterion, and to this end, they can be shown strategies to establish readability, for example,
by selecting two or three paragraphs at random and underlining every unknown word. If the
proportion of unfamiliar words greatly exceeds 10%, they should be encouraged to locate
another article.
6. Uses
Conference proceedings and journal articles have many uses in the preparation of ESL
students. At the Petroleum Institute these uses include:
‗Bottom-up’ language analysis: e.g. learning new vocabulary or structures.
‘Top-down’ language analysis: e.g. discourse (text organization (abstract,
introduction, literature review, conclusion etc); cohesion; coherence; reference;
conjunction, etc) and genre (purpose; audience; descriptive and expository genres).
Exemplifying academic standards: e.g. citing (short quotes, long quotes,
paraphrasing); reference lists; keywords and their purpose; contrasting citation
standards (e.g. APA, Harvard); avoiding plagiarism; footnotes and endnotes;
appendices.
Extracting content: e.g. identifying the author‘s intentions, position, thesis, main
claims, arguments and counter-arguments and supporting detail.
Identifying assumptions: authors of academic articles assume that the reader is
familiar with key concepts and debates within the area. Students can be guided to
deconstruct the writing, to ‗read between the lines‘, in order to identity such
assumptions.
Developing information literacy skills: students are guided to use the library‘s
database and internet search engines such as ‗Google Scholar‘ to identify appropriate
articles.
Developing academic writing skills: students are encouraged to integrate reading with
writing, for example, by analyzing examples of paraphrase or synthesis, or sections
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 34
of text such as the abstract, introduction or conclusion, and then using these as guides
in writing their own.
Encouraging critical thinking: e.g. students can be asked to identify and critique the
author‘s credentials and the extent to which the journal may be considered a quality
journal. They also need to consider whether the evidence that the author provides for
his or her findings is sufficient or not; if his or her arguments are valid and logical;
what the author may have omitted and whether or not the text contains any
inconsistencies or contradictions. They need to be guided to reject articles that fail to
meet criteria, and these may be negotiated with their lecturer. Nunn (2009) notes that
before students are able to select appropriate texts, they need to understand and apply
various criteria, and he describes an approach in which students are guided to
generate criteria themselves in the form of a pre-reading activity, having attended a
series of mini-lectures on genre and pragmatic theory.
Encouraging reflection, metacognition and metacommunication: students can be
asked to review their learning processes in terms of successful strategies and less
successful strategies, for example, sharing with peers both what was learned from
their reading and how it was learned. Metacognitive and metacommunicative skills
play an important role in reading, and students can be introduced to active reading
strategies that aid comprehension including clearly understanding why they are
reading, indentifying significant content, monitoring comprehension and taking
action when comprehension is poor (Baker & Brown, 1980). Metacognition can also
help students to apply old knowledge to new situations because effective learning
requires the organization of knowledge into chunks of stored patterns that can be
readily called on.
Initiating students’ own research: articles provide an excellent source of inspiration
for students‘ own enquiry. They can also provide the basis for a literature review
section of their report. Opportunities for team work are presented as students,
working in teams of 4, for example, can each read, annotate and summarize an
article, adding their work to a pool from which all can draw in the preparation of an
(albeit mini) literature review.
Enticing students into the ‘web’ of scholarship and enquiry: Students who are
encouraged to deconstruct an academic article gain a better understanding of
processes of enquiry, and are more likely to appreciate the importance of the various
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 35
stages in the process, such as establishing a research question, carrying out a
literature review, identifying suitable methods and analyzing data. They can begin to
see how each stage is a key part of ―a serious, sustained line of enquiry‖ (Neumann,
1993, p.97). This can help to improve understandings of the products of scholarship
and their various functions. Deconstruction and analysis of academic writing with a
view to carrying out original research can also help to encourage collaboration and
cooperation between lecturers and students, as both parties are focused on identifying
feasible and appropriate lines of enquiry. Collaboration positions lecturers‘ work at
the heart of scholarship and many opportunities are created for lecturers to use their
own work as examples, enhancing students‘ understanding of the profession and its
culture. Guided reading of academic articles can also be confidence-building for
students, making it more likely that students will consult such articles in the course of
their future studies.
To encourage students to see learning in broader terms, involving content as well as
process and values: Lecturers have a responsibility to help students to see that
learning goes beyond facts to include process. Hermida, citing Herteis (2007), notes
that students tend to think about learning in terms of content that consists of facts and
principles, while the rest of what happens is simply ‗activities‘. As a result of this
observation, he notes:
So ―teachers have a dual responsibility: we must do a better job of explaining
to our students that these ―hidden‖ things are actually content, and we have to
give them the opportunities to learn them.‖ We need to teach reading
processes, attitudes, and skills explicitly and move them to the forefront of
our actual curricula instead of taking them for granted.
Hermida, 2009, p.26
If reflection and metacognition are integrated in teaching academic literacy, teachers can
help students to see that content and process have equal value; indeed, they should be guided
to understand that process is the content of the academic literacy class.
Many of the uses described above presuppose the judicious selection of articles, which
could be time-consuming for teachers; however this is a task that students themselves can
most usefully be equipped to complete. It is important that students appreciate that not all
academic reporting will be appropriate or useful; nor will it always meet the standards
identified above. Such reporting should, of course, be avoided, and the application of quality
criteria by students themselves is an important part of the process, going some way towards
developing their critical thinking skills.
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 36
In the appendix, I have provided links to a few examples of articles that have successfully
been used with students who have attained a minimum proficiency level of IELTS band 5 or
equivalent. I also provide a link to the Directory of Open Access Journals, an invaluable
resource in relation to the approach described above.
Conclusion
Academic articles, with the advent of the internet, have become readily-available artifacts of
an ―international intellectual environment‖ (Graddol, 2007, p.79). This paper explores the
possibilities created by their use as resources in the preparation of first-year ESL students, in
particular, for university study. While it is not suggested that these students should read
academic articles to the exclusion of other materials, it is shown that requiring them to read
appropriate and relevant journal articles as part of the curriculum can offer significant
opportunities and benefits in terms of their linguistic development and academic
socialization. The use of such materials, in particular, contributes towards a ―constructively
aligned curriculum‖, in which the components are integrated, serve the same goals and
support each other (Biggs, 1999).
To provide students with adequate support in relation to this opportunity, however, a
phased approach is proposed whereby students begin by reading articles closely related to
their current status as students in transition, followed by articles concerned with scholarship
in teaching and learning in students‘ disciplines, from which they progress to those drawn
from the discipline itself. This last phase is essential, as:
… academic subjects and their literacy requirements can differ across
disciplines so that, for example, expectations for Science students can vary in
straightforward, or subtle ways, from those for History students. Such
variation could include written (or oral) conventions for how to structure an
argument or report research findings (Carkin, 2005; McCallum, 2004).
Johnson, 2008, p.239
Given that successful entry into the target discourse community is the ultimate aim of any
course that seeks to prepare ESL students for academic study, this phase cannot be ignored.
A curriculum that is constructively aligned as suggested here has important consequences in
terms of enhancing its integrity and credibility, both of which are likely to lead to greater
student satisfaction. The materials and the support provided are also likely to encourage
students to feel included and involved in the academic culture, rather than left languishing on
the periphery, trying to work out what they need to do in order to be fully accepted by a
culture that can appear, from the perspective of a new student, intimidating and
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 37
unwelcoming. Most importantly, carefully-selected articles exemplify high standards of
scholarship, which, when mirrored by good teaching and high lecturer expectations, can
elicit student writing of an exceptionally high quality.
References
Alderson, J. C. (2000). Assessing reading. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University
Press.
Anderson, N. J. (2002). The role of metacognition in second language teaching and learning.
ERIC Digest, Education Resources Information Center.
Baik, C. & Greig, J. (2009), Improving the academic outcomes of undergraduate ESL
students: the case for discipline-based academic skills programs. Higher Education
Research & Development, 28(4), 401–416.
Baker, L. & Brown, A. L. (1980). Metacognitive skills and reading. Technical Report No.
188. Cambridge, MA: Bolt, Beranek, and Newman and Chamapaign, IL: Center for the
Study of Reading.
Biggs, J. (1999). What the student does: Teaching for enhanced learning. Higher Education
Research & Development, 18(1), 57–75. Retrieved January 4, 2010 from:
https://my.unisa.edu.au/unisanet/Resources/pdot/Facilitating%20online%20learning/Biggs.
Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Princeton,
New Jersey: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Bragg, A. K. (1976). The socialization process in higher education. Washington, DC:
American Association of Higher Education.
Brandt, C. (2009a). The case for reflexivity in developing ESL students‘ academic
communication skills. International Journal of Arts and Sciences, 3(5), 1- 18.
Brandt, C. (2009b). Read, Research and Write: Academic skills for ESL students in higher
education, UK: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Brew, A. (1999). The value of scholarship. HERDSA Annual International Conference,
Melbourne, 12-15 July 1999. Retrieved January 6, 2010 from:
http://www.herdsa.org.au/branches/vic/Cornerstones/pdf/Brew.PDF
British Council, (2004). Vision 2020: Forecasting international student mobility, a UK
perspective. Retrieved November 23, 2009 from
http://www.britishcouncil.org/eumd_-_vision_2020.pdf .
Cullip, P. F. & Carol, D. (2002). Tailoring an EAP course to disciplinary needs: The
UNIMAS effort. Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. Retrieved December 22, 2006 from
http://www.melta.org.my/ET/2002/wp05.htm.
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 38
Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds) (2000). Handbook of qualitative research. USA: Sage
Publications Inc.
Ferris, D. & Tagg, T. (1996). Academic oral communication needs of EAP Learners: What
subject-matter instructors actually require. TESOL Quarterly, 30(1), 31-54.
Goetz, J. P. & LeCompte, M. D. (1984). Ethnography and qualitative design in educational
research. Orlando, FL, USA: Academic Press.
Grabe, W. (2009). Reading in a second language. Cambridge, England: Cambridge
University Press.
Grabe, W. & Stoller, F. L. (2002). Teaching and researching reading. London: Longman.
Graddol, D. (2007). English Next. UK: The British Council. Retrieved January 6, 2010 from
http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-research-english-next.pdf .
Healy, M. (2000). Developing the scholarship of teaching in higher education: A discipline-
based approach. Higher Education Research and Development, 19(2), 169-189.
Hermida , J. (2009). The Importance of Teaching Academic Reading Skills in First-Year
University Courses. The International Journal of Research and Review, 3, 20-30.
Hirvela, A. (2001). Incorporating reading into EAP writing courses. In J. Flowerdew & M.
Peacock (Eds) (2001), Research Perspectives on English for Academic Purposes (pp. 330-
346). UK: Cambridge University Press.
Johnson , E. M. (2008). An investigation into pedagogical challenges facing international
tertiary-level students in New Zealand. Higher Education Research & Development, 27 (3),
231–243.
Kehe, D. & Kehe, P. (1996). Professors‘ expectations of foreign students in freshman-level
Courses. JALT Journal, 18(1), 108-115.
Koda, K. (2005). Insights into second language reading. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press.
Laufer, B. (1998). The development of passive and active vocabulary in a second language:
Same or different? Applied Linguistics, 19(2), 255-271.
Lincoln, Y. S. & Guba, E. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA, USA: Sage
Publications.
Liu, N. & Nation, P. (1995). Factors affecting guessing vocabulary in context. RELC
Journal, 16(1), 33-42.
Mateos, M. & Sole, I. (2009). Synthesising information from various texts: A study of
procedures and products at different educational levels. European Journal of Psychology of
Education, 14(4), 435-451.
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 39
McKinney, K. (no date). What is the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) in
Higher Education? Illinois State University. Retrieved January 5, 2010 from
http://www.sotl.ilstu.edu/downloads/pdf/definesotl.pdf
Miles, M. B. & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: A sourcebook of new
methods. Beverly Hills, CA, USA: Sage Publications Inc.
Morton, R. (1999). Abstracts as authentic material for EAP classes. ELT Journal, 53(3), 177-
182.
Nagy, W. E. & Scott, J. (2000). Vocabulary processes. In M. Kamil P. Mosenthal, P. D.
Pearson & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research, Vol. III (pp. 269-284). Mahwah,
N.J.: Erlbaum.
Neumann R. (1993). Research and scholarship: perceptions of senior academic
Administrators. Higher Education, 25, 97-110.
Nunn, R. (2007). Re-defining communicative competence for international and local
communities. The Journal of English as an International Language, 2, 7-49.
Nunn, R. (2009). Developing pragmatic competence for critical academic reading. In R.
Cohen (Ed), Explorations in second language reading (pp. 117-131). Virginia, USA:
TESOL International Publications.
Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. USA: Sage Publications
Inc.
Robson, J. (2006). Teacher professionalism in further and higher education: Challenges to
culture and practice. London, UK: Routledge.
Roslyn Kunin & Associates, Inc. (2009). Economic impact of international education in
Canada: final report. Retrieved November 23, 2009 from
http://www.international.gc.ca/education/assets/pdfs/RKA_IntEd_Report_eng.pdf .
Shih, M. (1992). Beyond comprehension exercises in the ESL academic reading class.
TESOL Quarterly 26(2), 289-317.
Shulman, L. S. (1993). Teaching as community property. Change (Nov/Dec), 6-7.
Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research. London, UK: Sage
Publications Ltd.
Trigwell, K., Martin, E., Benjamin, J., & Prosser, M. (2000). Scholarship of teaching. Higher
Education Research & Development, 19(2). Retrieved January 14, 2009, from
http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/projects/scholarshipproject/about.htm
UK Higher Education International Unit, (2009). International student recruitment.
Retrieved November 23, 2009 from
http://www.international.ac.uk/statistics/international_student_recruitment.cfm.
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 40
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 41
Appendix
Examples of ‘open access’ journal articles of potential interest to ESL students with a
minimum proficiency level of IELTS 5 or equivalent
Many of the articles in the list of references above meet the criteria identified in this paper
and therefore offer potential in relation to the category of students referred to here. Several
are available online and in such cases, links have been provided. The Directory of Open
Access Journals is also a useful source. This service:
… covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals.
We aim to cover all subjects and languages. There are now 4539 journals in
the directory. Currently 1761 journals are searchable at article level. As of
today 337443 articles are included in the DOAJ service.
(see http://www.doaj.org/)
A few possibilities, organized according to the main themes of this article, are provided
below.
EAP/ESP:
Is EAP Necessary? A Survey of Hong Kong Undergraduates
Ken Hyland
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ajelt/vol7/art5.htm
A Shared Focus for WAC, Writing Tutors and EAP: Identifying the ―Academic Purposes‖ in
Writing Across the Curriculum
Kate Chanock
http://wac.colostate.edu/journal/vol15/chanock.pdf
Academic literacy development: a multiple perspectives approach to blended learning
Katherine Gilliver-Brown & E. Marcia Johnson
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/auckland09/procs/gilliver-brown.pdf
Transition into university culture:
‗Nobody cares‘: the challenge of isolation in school to university transition
Mark Peel
http://www.aair.org.au/jir/May00/Peel.pdf
The role of social transition in students‘ adjustment to the first-year of university
Tanya Kantanis
http://www.aair.org.au/jir/May00/Kantanis.pdf
How school-leavers choose a preferred university course and possible effects on the quality
Asian EFL Journal. Professional Teaching Articles. Vol. 44 May 2010
Asian EFL Journal 42
of the school-university transition
Richard James
http://www.aair.org.au/jir/May00/James.pdf
Scholarship:
The value of scholarship.
Angela Brew
http://www.herdsa.org.au/branches/vic/Cornerstones/pdf/Brew.PDF
A New Model of Scholarship at Kwantlen University College.
Balbir Gurm & Alice Macpherson
‗http://www.kwantlen.ca/__shared/assets/new_model_of_scholarship_20067481.pdf
Scholarship in teaching as a core professional value: what does this mean to the academic?
Gill Nicholls
http://www.esal.ee/ookk/Scholars.pdf
Reading for academic purposes:
Academic English reading proficiency at the university level: A Norwegian case study.
Glenn Ole Hellekjær
http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/October2009/articles/hellekjaer.pdf
Reading readings: How students learn to (dis)engage with critical reading
Kate Wilson, Linda Devereux, Mary Macken-Horarik, Chris Trimingham-Jack
http://www.herdsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/conference/2004/PDF/P048-jt.pdf
Integrating Extensive Reading into an English For Academic Purposes Program
John Macalister
http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/macalister/article.pdf